80-year-old hunter found safe after 2-day search

An 80-year-old man from Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., was found safe but cold Saturday two days after he failed to return from a caribou hunt.

The man was reported missing late Thursday night. He had left the community with three other hunters at around 9:30 Thursday morning but became separated from the others.

Search and rescue teams headed out around 1:30 a.m. Friday morning. ACASARA search aircraft from Inuvik and the RCMP aircraft from Yellowknife helped with an aerial search, and Canadian Rangers helped with the ground search.

The CASARA aircraft spotted the hunter around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, and a ground search team reached him three hours later.

The hunter was suffering from mild hypothermia.

He said his snow machine had become stuck in deep snow after he had shot three caribou, and he remained by the snow machine awaiting help.